Darfur: A Deadly New Chapter

Africa's most feared rebel army
arrives in region, threatening to reignite the conflict

By Daniel Howden

Africa's most feared rebel army arrives in region, threatening to reignite
the conflict

The Lord's Resistance Army, one of the most feared guerrilla groups in
Africa, has moved into Darfur, one of the continent's most troubled regions,
intelligence sources in Sudan say.

The unexpected move by the LRA comes just as the war-weary west of Sudan
recedes from world headlines and after the UN mission there had tentatively
declared the fighting to be over. The possible arrival of a messianic cult
notorious for rape, civilian massacres and the enslavement of child soldiers
threatens that fragile peace. The LRA has been terrorising the north of the
Democratic Republic of Congo for 18 months but the bulk of its forces have
now crossed into southern Darfur, a senior official in the Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA) told The Independent. . . .

The rebels, led by the self-styled prophet Joseph Kony, have waged a
campaign of terror in central Africa for two decades. . . .

After being forced out of Uganda, the LRA had initially moved into the north
of Congo. The rebel fighters relocated last year to camps in Garamba
National Park in what was hoped would be the final staging post before a
peace deal. But internationally brokered talks collapsed after the
International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Kony's arrest. . . .